


Cowards

by lowkeysalty



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: BL3 Spoilers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Other, character death kind of? no one dies IN the story but someone's death is mentioned, fl4k and ellie are a background ship, zane is sad bc he's not getting any action
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 18:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21213428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowkeysalty/pseuds/lowkeysalty
Summary: Amara and Moze can't sleep because of what they saw in the First Vault. (Borderlands 3 spoilers ahead)





	Cowards

One, two, three, four. The image of Tyreen Calypso threatening an innocent child was burned in Amara's brain. One, two, three, four. Troy Calypso reached up to drain Maya's life force. One, two, three, four. Maya's entire physical existence disintegrated. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. 

"Amara?" came a voice at the door. Amara was jerked out of her trance by it. For the first time in 30 minutes, she looked away from her rhythmic punching. She grabbed her sandbag to stop it from swinging back into her and turned to see Moze standing in the doorway, helmetless and armorless. Amara grabbed a towel off the nearby rack and wiped the sweat off her brow. 

"Sorry. Did I keep you awake?"

"Nah. I can't sleep with or without the noise," Moze said, leaning against the door frame. 

"You're thinking about the vault too?" Amara asked. 

"Yeah. Can't get it out of my head."

Amara sat down on her bunk and motioned for Moze to come inside. Moze trudged into the room and sat next to the siren. Amara popped open her hidden minifridge and pulled out two blue sports drinks, offering one to Moze. The former soldier accepted, already feeling calmer after entering such a zen room. Amara was by far the best decorator of the vault hunters. Fl4k's room's only feature was the litter box they didn't clean often enough. Zane had white "paint" splatters all over his floor and table. Moze had slapped down a couple stolen rugs and a workstation for Iron Bear's guns and called it a day. But Amara's room felt welcoming and lived in. More like a home. Then again, that could just be Amara herself. Despite her penchant for brawling, she was a kind soul, and Moze would be lying if she said she didn't have a bit of a crush on the siren. 

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking their Tediore branded Varkid-ade. The shit was nasty but the Crimson Raiders were ballin' on a budget up until earlier that day. What the team gained in riches, they lost in an ally. Neither Moze nor Amara really wanted to acknowledge the thing that was keeping them awake. Amara finally broke the silence, "Should we talk about it?" 

"It's not gonna go away so we might as well," Moze replied, giving a half-hearted shrug. 

Amara sighed deeply and said, "Everything became very _real_ at the vault. I have never been scared of a fight until today."

"Yeah. In all my years of combat experience, I've never just. Been frozen solid like that."

"Me either. I wanted to do something, _anything_, to help Maya restrain Troy and my body just... Wouldn't."

"Zane and Fl4k didn't budge either."

"We could've stopped them right there! Neither of them even saw us come out of the vault! And we did nothing! We’re cowards!" Amara was shouting now, tears welling up in her eyes. Moze scooted over and gently wrapped an arm around Amara's shoulders. Amara wiped the tears that were spilling over with her sweat towel. An eye infection waiting to happen, but she couldn't be bothered to care. The survivor's guilt was getting to her and that didn’t happen often. She turned her head to face Moze, "It's our fault Maya is dead."

"Don't say that," Moze said softly, though part of her believed that to be true.

"Am I wrong? All four of us sat there and did nothing while the biggest assholes on the Echonet killed our friend and gained all the powers of the Rampager. Cowardice."

"If it hadn't been Maya it would've been one of us. They knew what they were doing. They were gonna come down there anyway."

"I guess you're right. But that doesn't make it hurt less," Amara sighed, resting her head on Moze's shoulder. 

"I know." 

"It's strange, really. I barely knew her yet I'm so emotional."

"Maybe it's a siren thing?" Moze guessed, "Although I feel the same way and I didn't even have _that_ connection."

“She just had one of those electrifying personalities I suppose."

"The rest of the Crimson Raiders didn't act like it though. And seriously what was up with Tannis when we first got back? That shit was weird."

"That shit was disrespectful, really, and poor Ava…” Amara trailed off. 

“She probably blames herself too. I went to talk to her after Tannis’ lame excuse for a eulogy and she was _not_ holding it together well.”

“She just lost her mentor and nobody else acted like they cared.”

“Yeah. Can’t imagine what she’s going through,” Moze said. She released her hold on Amara’s shoulders and fiddled with her dog tags, thinking about the countless squadmates she had lost. Amara sat up straight and rested her hand on the bed between them. Silence enveloped the room once more as the two women stared at the floor. After a minute or so of analyzing the intricate patterns on the rugs, Moze remembered something. “Ava said she was going to be a siren some day. What’d she mean by that?” 

Amara shrugged, “No idea. But Maya said something about it too.”

“The answer’s probably in her book.”

“Ava still has it and I’m not sure she’s going to part with it any time soon.” 

“Yeah well. Maybe she will if you become her new mentor. You'd be great at it,” Moze said, squeezing Amara’s hand. 

For the second time that day, Amara froze. She looked down at their hands and felt blood rushing to her face. The siren’s eyes travelled up until they met the gunner’s. Amara tenderly cupped the other woman's cheek with her free hand. She leaned forward, pausing just before their lips could touch, wondering if this was an appropriate time. Before she could pull back and apologize for making their grieving session weird, she felt Moze's mouth collide with hers. Time stopped for Moze as Amara kissed back, slowly and passionately. When Amara did pull away she said, "Well that made me feel a little better." 

Moze was at a loss for words, but Amara could see the longing in her eyes and said, "If you want, we can move to the other bed." 

Without saying anything, Moze stood up and wrapped Amara's arms around her neck and carried the siren over to the round bed on the other side of the room.

* * *

"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS!" a familiar accented voice yelled.

Amara jolted up and was quickly mortified by the situation. Her body was covered by nothing but a blanket and Moze lay next to her only wearing dog tags as Zane and Fl4k towered above them. 

"Oh my god you fucking pervs!" Moze shouted, reaching for her shirt. 

"Oh _please_, we didn't see anythin'," Zane said, "Besides, I already knew what was goin' on in here last night. Heard the whole thing."

"You what?" Amara asked in disbelief. 

"How could I not hear you two bangin' against me wall? We share that wall y'know," Zane declared, pointing at the wall. 

"Shit. Well surely you were the only one that heard it," Amara said. 

"Nope. I heard it too," Fl4k said. 

"The next closest person is Ellie. Surely _she_ didn't hear it," said Moze. 

"She heard it as well," Fl4k declared. Both women flushed with embarrassment. The whole ship probably knew of their escapade. 

Zane cackled. "Oh my _god_ you should see the look on-- wait a second, how the feck do you know Ellie heard it?"

"I was with her." 

"Doin' what?" Zane asked, genuinely confused. 

"THE SAME THING!" Ellie's voice shouted from right outside the door. 

"How come everyone's gettin' some but me?" Zane pouted. 

"We don't have time to unpack that," Moze said.

Zane was about to argue with her when Ellie leaned inside and said, "Will you two leave these lovebirds alone so they can get movin'? The dropship's ready when y'all are." 

Fl4k dragged Zane out of the room by his jacket collar and let the door slide shut behind them. The pair redressed in silence, both terribly embarrassed by what just happened. Once fully clothed, Moze made for the door but Amara grabbed her arm before she could leave. 

"Moserah," she said, breaking out Moze's full first name, "I don't want to lose anyone else on this journey. Especially not you." 

Moze turned around and planted a tender kiss on Amara's cheek. "You won't."

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to Cowards by Raleigh Ritchie on repeat while writing this. Follow @streamdirtycar on twitter for more lesbianism.


End file.
